A Condition of Return in the Sale of Land and the Like

Question

The deeds of sale that people have drawn up for fields, land, houses and ancestral property — what is their status: are they permissible or impermissible? Besides this, they also fix a definite limit (hadd) in them — is this permissible or impermissible?

Answer

The essence of a sale (bayʿ) is that one removes a thing one owns from one’s ownership in return for a price and gives it to another for ever — whether it be land, a house, a shop or anything else — and then retains no special right on the basis of that ownership, neither stipulates a return in it nor fixes any limit.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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